Related papers: Warming early Mars with CO2 and H2
In the aftermath of the Moon-forming giant impact, the Hadean Earth's mantle and surface crystallized from a global magma ocean blanketed by a dense volatile-rich atmosphere. While prior studies have explored the thermal evolution of such…
Magma ocean crystallisation sets up the early structure and long-term evolution of terrestrial planets. Recent seismic evidence signals the presence of a silicate layer at the base of Mars' mantle. Magma-ocean crystallisation and subsequent…
We present the first general circulation model simulations that quantify and reproduce patches of extremely cold air required for CO$_2$ condensation and cloud formation in the Martian mesosphere. They are created by subgrid-scale gravity…
The potential habitability of an exoplanet is traditionally assessed by determining if its orbit falls within the circumstellar `habitable zone' of its star, defined as the distance at which water could be liquid on the surface of a planet…
Carbon dioxide is one of the major contributors to the radiative forcing, increasing both the temperature and the humidity of Earth's atmosphere. If the stellar irradiance increases and water becomes abundant in the stratosphere of an…
We used chemical equilibrium and chemical kinetic calculations to model chemistry of the volatiles released by heating different types of carbonaceous, ordinary and enstatite chondritic material as a function of temperature and pressure.…
During the accretion of Titan, impact heating may have been sufficient to allow the global melting of water ice and the release of volatile compounds, mainly constituted of CO2, CH4 and NH3. The duration and efficiency of exchange between…
Venus's past climate evolution is uncertain. General circulation model simulations permit a habitable climate as late as ~0.7 Ga, and there is suggestive-albeit inconclusive-evidence for previous liquid water from surface geomorphology and…
The Martian atmosphere experiences large diurnal variations due to the ~24.6 h planetary rotation and its low heat capacity. Understanding such variations on a planetary scale is limited due to the lack of observations, which are greatly…
First high-altitude observations of gravity wave (GW)-induced CO$_2$ density perturbations in the Martian thermosphere retrieved from NASA's NGIMS instrument on board the MAVEN satellite are presented and interpreted using the extended GW…
Ozak et al. [2016] claimed that explicitly including the effect of CO$_2$ collisional line mixing (LM) in their radiative transfer calculations yield CO$_2$ atmospheres that are more transparent to infrared radiation than when spectra…
The decline of Mars' global magnetic field some 3.8-4.1 billion years ago is thought to reflect the demise of the dynamo that operated in its liquid core. The dynamo was probably powered by planetary cooling and so its termination is…
Early in the Moon's history volcanic outgassing may have produced a periodic millibar level atmosphere (Needham and Kring, 2017). We examined the relevant atmospheric escape processes and lifetime of such an atmosphere. Thermal escape rates…
The relatively warm temperatures required on early Earth and Mars have been difficult to account for via warming from greenhouse gases. We tested whether this problem can be resolved for both Earth and Mars by a young Sun that is brighter…
Terrestrial planets currently in the habitable zones around M dwarfs likely experienced a long-term runaway greenhouse condition because of a slow decline in host-stellar luminosity in its pre-main sequence phase. Accordingly, they might…
One popular view of Venus' climate history describes a world that has spent much of its life with surface liquid water, plate tectonics, and a stable temperate climate. Part of the basis for this optimistic scenario is the high deuterium to…
A model for the formation and distribution of sedimentary rocks on Mars is proposed. The rate-limiting step is supply of liquid water from seasonal melting of snow or ice. The model is run for a O(10^2) mbar pure CO2 atmosphere, dusty snow,…
Characterizing the exchange of water between the Martian atmosphere and the (sub)surface is a major challenge for understanding the mechanisms that regulate the water cycle. Here we present a new dataset of water ice detected on the Martian…
Present-day Venus is an inhospitable place with surface temperatures approaching 750K and an atmosphere over 90 times as thick as present day Earth's. Billions of years ago the picture may have been very different. We have created a suite…
Terrestrial exoplanets likely form initial atmospheres through outgassing during and after accretion, although there is currently no first-principles understanding of how to connect a planet's bulk composition to its early atmospheric…